Cleaning Up Their Act

(I’m the assistant manager of a gym. Every day one of our instructors comes to complain how dirty the classroom is. We clean it every single day, in the morning and at night.)

Instructor: “You need to clean it before my class starts!”

Me: “Your class starts at the same time I do.”

Instructor: “Yeah, but if you got here, like, 15 minutes early…”

Me: “I walk here and am the first staff to arrive. What if you just spend two minutes with the floor mop and sweep the floor before class?”

Instructor: “I shouldn’t have to. I’m not staff.”

(A couple of days go by…)

Instructor: “Maybe we need to hire someone to come in at night to clean it. It’s getting nasty back there. The girls and I have been seeing mouse poop.”

(The instructor leaves. I turn to my manager.)

Me: “Have you seen any mouse poop?”

Manager: “No. It’s been clean every time I go back there. We can’t hire someone just to come in the middle of the night just to clean that back room.”

Me: “I’ve got an idea.” *goes to the instructor* “Listen. We can’t hire someone unless we prove that it’s really gross. Every time you see mouse poop or massive piles of dirt, take a picture and send it to me so we can have record of how disgusting it gets back there. Then we can tell [Owner] that we need someone extra.”

Instructor: “That’ll be perfect. Thanks.”

(A few days go by…)

Instructor: “Thanks so much, you guys. It’s really looking a lot better back there!”

(The instructor never sent us any pictures of any messes, and we never changed a thing.)